Whether an organization needs transformational leadership to revamp its approach or is seeking to maintain its time-tested course, it’s key to be proactive in planning for succession to sustain a competitive edge. As expert advisers on candidate assessment and the selection process, we are uniquely qualified to assist boards with the important and complex task of succession planning, helping organizations design and customize a process that meets the situational need.
At RSR Partners, we partner with an independent firm to evaluate candidates in order to complement the competency assessment of our search professionals with the independence of a research-driven and legally defensible tool for a richer perspective.
We are finding that the authority boards have traditionally enjoyed in selecting their CEOs and senior management teams is being challenged more frequently by the growing influence of institutional investors, hedge funds, and other investment managers. Short-term expectations are continuing to undermine long-term decisions by investors – who are subsequently being pressured to generate immediate alpha for their clients. Organizations that delay making tough but necessary leadership decisions risk growing discontent or involvement from activist shareholders. As a result, the boards and CEOs are now turning to leadership advisory firms like ours to help them independently develop their own point of view of the company’s CEO succession plans.
We recently helped the board of a Fortune 1000 technology company with an independent evaluation of three internal CEO successor candidates, ultimately exposing gaps in their succession optionality. Most recently, we worked closely with the Chairman and CEO of a Fortune 1000 industrial company who needed to better understand their leadership team’s capabilities—and whether they had the collective and individual talent and skill to take the company in a new and necessary direction.
